Mark Hackel: Put right to work to a vote of the people

Macomb County Executive Mark Hackel, who in 2011 called for a statewide ballot proposal to decide the highly charged right-to-work issue, now feels vindicated by the events of this week that have bitterly divided Michigan’s Republicans and Democrats.

The Republican right-to-work legislation that was approved by the lame duck session of the Legislature, which Gov. Rick Snyder quickly signed into law on Tuesday, is referendum-proof because it strategically includes a $1 million appropriation that prevents a ballot proposal challenge. A more-difficult approach, putting an initiative on the 2014 ballot by collecting more than 300,000 petition signatures, is now left as organized labor’s only realistic alternative.

If the state’s union officials devise a “thoughtful” plan on ballot language and the campaign that would ensue, “I would have no problem putting something like that on the (2014) ballot,” Hackel said. “Do I think that (the appropriation in the bill) was appropriate? No, I don’t. But I’m not going to whine about it.”

A Macomb Township Democrat who is an outspoken ally of the Republican governor, Hackel said labor leaders should have realized that they were in no position to defeat a right-to-work measure at a time when the state House and Senate are solidly under Republican control.

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“When you don’t control the football, you don’t get to call the plays,” said Hackel, who was a union member for nearly two decades within the Macomb County Sheriff’s Department, prior to winning election as sheriff in 2000.

Labor’s unsuccessful attempt at Proposal 2, which lost badly on the November ballot, poisoned Michigan’s political atmosphere by attempting to place collective bargaining rights in the Michigan Constitution, the county executive said.

With the passage of right-to-work, Macomb’s top official is worried about the tensions that could arise within the county government workforce, even as labor contracts were recently negotiated with 23 of the county’s 26 bargaining units.

In order to diffuse the situation and remove the taint of a legislative lame duck session ramming through Michigan’s stunning new status as a right-to-work state, Hackel said a carefully crafted drive for a ballot proposal must aim at attaining a middle ground.

“Both sides have their extremes, on the far left and the far right, but the independent, the moderate voter, wants to know why this (traditional labor rules) is a good idea,” the executive said.

At a Macomb County Chamber of Commerce event in 2011, Hackel was asked his opinion on right-to-work and, contrary to the Democratic and Republican state representatives on hand, he suggested that a statewide ballot proposal would be the best solution.

“I knew at the time where this was going. No question about it, the Republicans in control were going to do what they were going to do,” he said. “I bet you everyone involved in this (in union circles) at this point wishes they had gone in the direction of a straightforward statewide vote rather than pushing for a constitutional amendment.”